Pushing for progress

Only weeds sprout where stores were promised

Seven years ago, a high-profile developer was chosen to develop six acres in the heart of Barrio Logan after promising to attract a grocery store, a bank and other businesses that would bring hundreds of jobs.

Today the property is vacant, fenced and full of weeds.

Luis E. Garcia, who runs the Barrio Logan icon Chuey's Restaurant & Cantina, said the vacant property is an eyesore and a hangout for homeless people.

He blames the developer, Sam Marasco, president of LandGrant Development, and its partner in the project, the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee.

"If you can't stand and deliver, get . . . out of the way," said Garcia, a member of the Barrio Logan Redevelopment Project Area Committee who wants to see improvements in the community where his family business has long been located.

Garcia was among those who applied to redevelop the property, which is bounded by Cesar E. Chavez Parkway, National Avenue, Main Street and the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. Last year, he opened his rebuilt restaurant on Main Street across the street from the vacant property.

In October, the area committee, which consists of business owners, homeowners and renters, asked the city's Redevelopment Agency to break its ties with the developer and solicit new bids.

Jim LoBue, the city's redevelopment coordinator on the project, said he shares the community's disappointment with the lack of progress on the development and feels his office has let the community down.

"We wanted this project done a long time ago," LoBue said.

The shopping center project fell apart last year after construction costs skyrocketed, causing the developer to lose its financing, LoBue said.

The first portion of the development, the 144-unit Mercado Apartments, opened in 1994 in the shadow of the bridge.

LoBue said city officials have considered making a fresh start with a different developer, but realize it would require going through a cumbersome process again.

City officials persuaded the Barrio Logan area committee to listen to a new proposal from the developer. It will be presented at 6 p.m. tomorrow at 2175 Newton Ave.

The original development would have provided 115,000 square feet of commercial space. The newly proposed, 400,000-square-foot project would include 280 condominiums with underground parking. The retail space would be cut nearly in half, but the Latino grocery El Tigre still would be the anchor store, said Arnulfo Manriquez, director of housing and community development for the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee project.

The MAAC project and LandGrant are working together on the new proposal as Mercado Alliance LLC.

Manriquez said he believes the new proposal would serve the community better than the originally planned shopping center because of the city's need for housing. He said 15 percent to 20 percent of the condominiums would be sold to low-income buyers.

"Maybe this is the right thing that needs to go in here," he said. "Maybe it was worth it to wait for this."

Marasco, who built Las Americas, the high-end San Ysidro shopping center at the U.S.-Mexico border, did not return calls seeking comment.

LoBue said his department has not signed off on the new proposal. His department has given Mercado Alliance a list of deadlines that must be met to keep the project on track. If that doesn't happen to the city's satisfaction, the city may terminate the agreement and go forward with a new developer, LoBue said.

"This thing has dragged on so long," LoBue said. "We are not satisfied with the performance."

He said the developer recently seemed to have taken its responsibility seriously, but that completing the project will require sustained attention.

The city has spent more than $13 million to acquire the property, relocate businesses and widen Chavez Parkway. Mercado Alliance paid a token amount for the land.

Rudolph Pimentel, a business owner and property owner in Barrio Logan, said he can't help but notice that developers have built up downtown in the nine years the Mercado property has been vacant.

A new baseball stadium has been designed and built less than a mile away from the Mercado site, and more than a dozen condo projects have gone up.

However, Pimentel said, Barrio Logan is still waiting for its shopping center.